The Bridge “X” Marks 10 Years On The Car Show Scene
Set on the site of a former race circuit, The Bridge showcases an unexpected mix of rare and collector cars at a relaxed golf course setting in Bridgehampton
Since watching the sun slip beyond Peconic Bay last year at the ninth The Bridge, we’ve been looking forward to this year, it’s 10th edition. It’s rare to be excited to return to the next installment of an ongoing automotive event just as the current one is ending. We knew after attending for the first time that The Bridge is something special in the robust car-show ecosystem: no judges, no clipboards, no teams of car-care specialists, no press conferences and no losers. Everybody at The Bridge is a winner because at this show, the invitation is the award.
Taking stock of the car-show circuit today, it would be easy enough to identify the need for a show that encourages collectors to bring the car—or in many cases, cars—they love, not the one they think is going to net them a trophy. That The Bridge began in 2016 shows how far ahead of the curve its founders were. While others were content to replicate what had worked elsewhere for many years, Robert Rubin, Shamin Abas and Jeffrey Einhorn set out to do something different.
A golf course full of collector cars vying for attention and awards is nothing new. The Bridge is the only show where the golf course was built on the site of a former race circuit. That history sets the tone from the moment you arrive. Driving in on the last remaining stretch of the circuit and under the iconic Chevron Gasolines-branded pedestrian bridge gives attendees a real sense of place. It also fires up the imagination before you’ve even started to walk the grounds. What the founders and their partners have created is an atmosphere that’s noticeably relaxed and about as far from the scrum of Monterey Car Week as it gets.
Even with Mercedes-Benz presenting the show during its 140th anniversary, we didn’t get the sense that anybody was selling anything other than a good time. Nobody is in a hurry, the cars on display have room to breathe, and the only large crowds that form are around the beloved food vendors from New York City. It’s the vibe a September afternoon on a beautiful golf course should have, with the added bonus of over 300 collector cars (and one restored city bus) on the fairways.
Eclectic taste has been a cornerstone of The Bridge since the beginning. Cars that would have competed at the Bridgehampton Race Circuit in its heyday sit alongside contemporary favorites and future classics. Where else will you find 15 Ferrari Testarossas in one section and a Land Rover Series III flatbed pickup in another? How about an immaculate Fiat Panda 4×4 parked in a sand trap across from a 997 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 that got the full Sonderwunsch treatment in 2011? Rather than chase rarity as the defining factor, The Bridge leads with the outright unexpected.
Parking a 1973 GMC New Look bus in the heart of the show and surrounding it with yellow cars that would make the world’s most exciting taxis is a perfect example of that mindset. Did we mention there was a pop-up drive-in movie screen showing iconic car chases? Of course, that doesn’t mean rarity is absent from the show. Encountering multiple Ferrari Monza SP1s, SP2s and Daytona SP3s as we walked a little farther down the fairway made that obvious.
While The Bridge is an invitation-only event, the Cars & Coffee that takes place the following day on the grounds of the Bridgehampton Museum is free and open to the public. Many of the same cars from the show make their way to downtown Bridgehampton, and more join the field as well. The museum itself has a great exhibit on the golden era of the race circuit, and a live jazz quartet provides the perfect soundtrack to close out the weekend.
What are your thoughts?